


Z=24

by SilentWaves



Series: Waves' Dr. STONE Week 2020 [7]
Category: Dr. STONE (Anime), Dr. STONE (Manga)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Introspection, chrome sees senku as a teacher, chrome-centric (Dr. STONE), is it even a Waves fic if there's not a bit of self-reflection?, just a little, senku is the best thing to ever happen to humanity, the romance is very minor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-04
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:22:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25062295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilentWaves/pseuds/SilentWaves
Summary: Chrome has been good at entertaining his friends with colourful flames and fancy arithmetic tricks his whole life. He’s thought himself a sorcerer until Senku appears, bringing along something that is so much better.
Relationships: Mostly gen - Relationship, minor Chrome/Ruri (Dr. STONE)
Series: Waves' Dr. STONE Week 2020 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1806610
Comments: 2
Kudos: 26
Collections: Dr. Stone Week 2020





	Z=24

**Author's Note:**

> chrome is such a Good Boy... I love him

“Poor kid, lost his parents at such a young age.” 

“This year’s food supply was also scarce, huh…”

“I heard the boy, you know the one, he moved out to the village perimeter.”

“Is that kid still going out to those caves by himself?”

“I hope he’s doing alright… maybe the guards can take after him…”

Chrome is used to everyone talking about him. He first found the caves as an escape from the whispers that followed wherever he went, and he got Kaseki to build him a house (well, a warehouse, but he sleeps there more often than not) outside the main village island so that he could be undisturbed. The guards, Kinrou and Ginrou, were just a bit older than he was and didn’t bother him at all. 

He was a little lonely, but that was fine. Sometimes, he’d be allowed to see Ruri, since Kohaku would invite him over so often. Maybe she felt pity for him, Kohaku, that is. She was always sticking her nose in everyone’s business, though nobody complained because she had such kind intentions. 

The visits with Ruri were nice, a break from all the noise, because nobody would dare bother the Priestess. 

And besides, Ruri herself was… very nice. She was pretty, sure, but she was also so gentle. She never mentioned anything about Chrome’s rock collection, unless it was out of awe. And then, she’d enthusiastically listen to Chrome’s stories about what the rocks could do, even using a term from one of the 100 tales to label his hobby: sorcery.

From then on, Chrome was no longer Chrome the Orphan, or Chrome the Recluse, or Chrome the Kid Who Explores Caves, or even Chrome the Rock Collector, because be was instead Chrome the _Sorcerer_.

Chrome loved that title. He was the only one who bothered looking through the caves near the village, even though they were dark and sometimes the ground would collapse around him. He’d always bring rope and Kohaku would come by every now and then on his expeditions to check on him. 

One day, when he was shivering in the middle of another ditch while waiting for Kohaku to come by, his bag full of new rocks that he picked off from the walls, he had a thought. Nobody went around the caves, so nobody knew what the different rocks would do. If he split open certain ones, they would spark and crackle with energy that could only be compared to the magic of Ruri’s stories. He could find some that didn’t seem to scratch or crumble no matter how hard he hit them (though admittedly he wasn’t that strong, since he’s never trained for it). Chrome had discovered so many things about the previously-unassuming rocks, simply because he _wondered_ and _tested_ the different possibilities.

If he could create sparks out of thin air, then who’s to say that he couldn’t find a cure for Ruri’s illness?

He wasn’t about to give the most amazing person on the island some rocks to eat, or a magical fire for her to stand in, but maybe he could look at the plants too. They lived right by a forest, after all, and there’s probably a lot of interesting things that could be done with the vines and flowers that nobody ever thought to try beyond the most basic medicinal plants

From then, Chrome picked up some herbs and the such, seeing what they could do to help. He applied some leaves onto his scrapes from cave-exploring, then tried to mash them up to see if anything would be more effective than the healing plants they have in the village. Only some actually helped his wounds at all, even if they stung, while others left deep red blotches that had Kohaku doubling her daily water trips. There were a few that didn’t actually speed up the heeling, though it did leave a cooling sensation that relieved him of any pain. He collected the most of those in case the chief would ever let Ruri have any, though it would be unlikely unless Chrome could find something way better than the herbs that they're currently using. 

He kept experimenting, with rocks and with plants. He once worked right until sunset, chipping the different stones against each other, because some don’t scratch easily while others crumble at the slightest pressure. The fire was about to go out, and when it did, he’d have no choice but to go to sleep for the night, but before that he accidentally dropped some blue crystals into it. 

And the flame turned _green_.

He rubbed his eyes, because maybe this was just a side effect of the sun — he’s seen that happen sometimes with some rocks — or maybe he was just tired, or maybe he was dreaming. But no, there was the flame, bright and clear. Still a beautiful green, almost blue at the edges, and when he hovers his hand near it he could still feel the warmth of normal fire. He’d had _bad_ results before, but this was the _baddest_ one so far.

Chrome realized that he could be doing so much more with his collection.

It was dark though, and he didn’t want to attract any predators, so he resolved to keep experimenting tomorrow. He didn’t end up getting a wink of sleep until early morning, and then proceeded to take a nap for the next 5 hours. 

At noon, he grabbed a small fruit for breakfast and immediately went back to his rock storage. He tried it with the other blue crystals, and found that they all gave the fire the same effect. 

He tried it with others too, tossing random stones and remembering which ones did which. Some just sat there, not burning but also not creating anything new. Some lost their colour in the fire, but there was no change to the fire itself. Some would spark for a bit, enough to make Chrome jump back in fear, but not change the colour.

He did notice some turn the flames purple, or yellow, or a darker red. He had gotten the younger guard’s attention right away, mostly because of the sparking rocks. 

Ginrou, if that was his name (Chrome was pretty sure, but the brothers did have similar names so he could never be too sure), had screeched almost as loudly as the nearby lions. Kinrou had come over and glared angrily at the flame. Chrome thought that Kinrou was always angry, squinting his eyes like that all the time, so he wasn’t too fazed by it.

He showed it off, the different flames and the fun ways that the stones like to react to the fire, but Kinrou had been sceptical at best and Ginrou had been terrified at worst. Kinrou let him off with a warning not to take it too far, and to make sure he doesn’t burn the village. 

Chrome wasn’t disappointed. Well, he was, but it was more of an expected disappointment than anything. At the very least, the nickname of Chrome the Sorcerer had caught on, and on days that Ruri was feeling well enough, he’d go to her house to perform some fire tricks for her (Kohaku insisted on guarding her sister though, making sure that none of the sparks would go anywhere near Ruri and that the smoke got out of the room with no problems).

He kept going to the caves, looking for rocks that seemed especially interesting, or just any rocks that were loose enough for Chrome to chip off without too much difficulty. And every year, his collection grows more varied — shiny rocks, sparkly rocks (he’s found out that those two descriptors mean very different things), clear crystals, and not-so-clear crystals (he especially liked to look for the coloured ones). Sometimes, he’d pick up a dull-looking rock, only to see it full of super _bad_ crystals on the inside. 

So he picked up everything he could fit in his bags. Kaseki, the gentle grandfatherly guy that he is, got special woven baskets for Chrome to store and organize his collection.

Over the years, the number of baskets and the coloured stones inside them grew as Chrome did. He’d be able to perform his sorcery for Ruri less and less, because she was getting worse as time goes by, but she always had a special smile reserved for the sparks and colours that came from the flames. Chrome was happy to see her have fun, and she was happy to enjoy the show.

He could proudly call himself an official (and the only) sorcerer. It was how he introduced himself to the babies, and it was why he wasn’t ever given tasks for hunting or building. He wasn’t strong, not by any definition of the word, and Kaseki didn’t think himself to be old enough to need an apprentice yet. So Chrome was free to keep exploring, and keep experimenting, and occasionally cheering Ruri up with some mild explosions and coloured fire and math tricks that he does to help him sleep.

It wasn’t a bad life, really, but Chrome didn’t realize how much he was missing until the day Senku arrived at Ishigami Village.

Chrome didn’t realize that _anyone_ else in the village knew any arithmetic, much less the outsiders (criminals? Statue people? He wasn’t sure). Immediately, his whole life of research was crushed by some guy with long spiky hair. 

This would be this teacher though. He’d learn from him, and he’d know the sorcery — no, _science_ — that was required to heal Ruri.

And Senku teaches him. He teaches Chrome about the planes, monster-sized machines that could fly like the birds and take the people up with them. He teaches Chrome about technology, converting touches on a plate into electric signals that responded to the contact. He teaches Chrome about the Earth, so much bigger than the village and the forest, beyond the ocean and below and around it. He teaches Chrome about space, the amazing contraptions that people made to reach the stars that always seem so far away. 

His stories were _incredible_ , so incredibly _baaad_ , like something right out of Ruri’s tales. Something so incredible because it’s possible to make, right here, right now, with an idea that comes from the brain in front of him and the abilities of those around him.

Chrome didn’t feel alone at all, surrounded by the possibilities that the stranger scientist that appeared in front of him that day.

He learned, and kept learning. He learned about iron, and he learned about food, and he learned about antibiotics, and he learned that some deadly diseases could really be cured with the right ingredients. 

He remembers what Ruri’s voice sounds like without her lungs trying to stifle it.

Chrome can’t believe what he’s seeing half the time. The cell phone that sends messages across the air, and can be heard far past his area of vision. The lightbulbs, something that lights up their village even when there's no sun out, and the lifetimes upon lifetimes of science that it takes to build up to that point, so far past Chrome’s own experience with smashing rocks.

He feels like a child, in every way possible.

He was looking up at the giant that was science, in a world where millenia of experimentation was stored in only one person’s brain, in a world where said person could bring all of that back.

Senku wants to go to space, and Chrome really, _really_ wants to help him get there.

What would it be like to build a _rocket_? A flying machine like Senku’s stories? A train? A computer? A robot? Everything was overwhelmingly _bad_ — he could barely contain his excitement.

He couldn’t wait, because they just couldn’t advance _fast enough_. He wanted to experience the world that Senku told him about, and he can bring Ruri into it as well now that she’s been cured. Chrome was going to be right up there, in the forefront, learning about the science and the equations and the arithmetic that went with it. He was enjoying every moment of it, and he knows that he can enjoy so many more.

Now that there’s no more risk of freezing, no more risk of starvation, Chrome has a chance to witness the birth of the old world. 

And _that_ , is going to be the baddest thing of them all.

**Author's Note:**

> Dr STONE Week was very fun!! I'm glad that I got all my fics done beforehand, or I probably wouldn't have been able to post something every day. This was a great experience though, and I definitely hope to do it again next year (I can almost GUARANTEE that I'll still be into drst at that time, because this series is super mega iconic and I love it a lot).
> 
> [Tumblr](https://voicelesswaves.tumblr.com/)


End file.
